Silent civic body earns ire over cholera deaths
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From an era of easy access for the media, the Ripon Buildings (city civic headquarters) have now become an “out of bounds” zone for Chennai scribes thanks to Mr Managara Thanthai Saidai S. Duraisamy, who prefers to maintain silence even on important issues related to public health.
With cholera taking alarming proportions in the city, the city corporation has not only failed to take care of the flies, it has also earned the wrath of the media with stories related to poor sanitation being published daily.
The Chennai Corporation, which has been denying the 30 Cholera deaths in the expanded city, has even ordered a vigilance probe into its data entry operators.
In the recent Council meet, the Corporation also admitted that the records of the Tondiarpet Communicable Diseases Hospital were erroneous and this had resulted in a section of the media reporting high cholera deaths here.
Whatever may be the reason, one cannot deny the fact that the city is stinking thanks to non-implementation of source segregation of waste and poor handling of garbage by the Corporation and by Ramky in a few outsourced zones.
With the state Health department remaining silent and the Corporation avoiding media queries, journalists have got an open field to score.
A senior corporation official admitted how the Ripon Buildings had poorly handled the whole cholera episode.
There were just three confirmed cases of cholera, but with the officials denying the fact, a few newspapers went overboard saying there were 30 cholera deaths in the city. This means there are four cholera deaths every month and that is not true.
“For suppressing the facts during the initial days, the Corporation paid a heavy price,” the official said, adding that at the same time the media should not exaggerate and create panic.
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